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Program spotlights Missouri River legends (Feb. 29, 2008) – Sioux City Journal Outdoor editor Larry Myhre will present “Missouri River Stories: Legends and Lore after Lewis & Clark” at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 9 at the Betty Strong Encounter Center on the Missouri Riverfront. Admission will be free.
In the illustrated program Myhre will
take the audience to river sites where
legends come alive. “I’ll show the audience
some of the places I find most intriguing.
We can still stand at those places and meet
people who did extraordinary things,” says
Myhre who has fished and written about the
Missouri River for some 40 years. Among the sites will be the location where the North Alabama sunk on a bend just southwest of Vermillion, S.D., almost 138 years ago. Piloted by legendary steamboat captain Grant Marsh, the boat hit a snag. The wreckage was discovered in the spring of 2003 by Clint Pinkelman, of Hartington, Neb. Historians believe as many as 10 steamboats were lost between Sioux City and Yankton, S.D.
Myhre will dig back to the fur trade, a
period that attracted rugged individualists
to the Missouri River in the early 1800s.
“These were pathfinders who became known as
mountain men. They traded civilization for a
gun, knife, trap and life in the Western
wilderness. Their first baptism of fire was
the trek up the Missouri River to the
junction of the Yellowstone.”
Some of the pathfinders experienced
hardships beyond today’s imagination. Among
them was John Colter, a member of the Lewis
& Clark Expedition and one of the “nine
young men from Kentucky.” He was a fast
runner, quick-minded, courageous and one of
the expedition’s best hunters. After the
expedition Colter remained in the wilderness
where he hunted and trapped in the
mountains. He died in 1813.
Hugh Glass, another legendary
adventurer, was mauled by a grizzly bear and
left for dead by his companions in
present-day northern South Dakota. “He
crawled 200 miles to a fort near present-day
Chamberlain, S.D. He recovered from his
wounds and then left for the Rockies on a
mission of revenge,” Myhre says.
The fur trade was followed by the
steamboat era which spawned a new type of
river hero, the steamboat captain. “We'll
explore what it took to navigate the
Missouri, where an estimated 400 steamboats
were wrecked or abandoned between St. Louis
and Fort Benton, Montana.”
Myhre believes knowledge of the past is
essential to appreciating today's river and
the role human beings play in its future.
His program is one in a series designed to
raise respect for the Missouri River’s
ongoing life. It is offered by the Encounter
Center in cooperation with the Izaak Walton
League of America, one of the nation's
oldest conservation organizations.
Myhre continues his association with
The Journal as outdoors editor. He
produces news, features and photographs for
Sunday editions. He also edits and writes
for The Journal’s bimonthly
“Siouxland Outdoors” publication.
Myhre is affiliated with Outdoorsmen
Productions, a publishing and TV production
company headed by Gary Howey in Hartington,
Neb. He’s co-host of the Outdoorsmen
Adventures TV show and works with Howey on
other outdoors promotion, including guiding,
seminar presentations and public relations.
As a freelance writer, Myhre’s work has
been published in a number of magazines,
including Fur-Fish-Game, Fly
Fisherman, Fins and Feathers, and
Outdoor Life. He’s a frequent
contributor to Iowa Game and Fish,
and Great Plains Game and Fish
magazines.
He has been an active member of the
Outdoor Writers Association of America for
27 years and is a member of the Association
of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers.
The Betty Strong Encounter Center is a
private, non-profit institution built and
sustained by Missouri River Historical
Development, Inc. (MRHD). It is connected to
the Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive
Center on the Missouri Riverfront, exit 149
off I-29. Admission, all programs, exhibits
and activities are free. For more
information, visit
www.siouxcitylcic.com or call
712-224-5242.
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